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US-China row moves underwater in cable tangle:
An underwater data cable, linking the US to Hong Kong, looks set to be rejected by the US government because of fears of Chinese data theft.
The Pacific Light Cable Network, backed by Google and Facebook, is designed to boost internet speed and capacity.
[...] The new cable was announced in 2016 as a partnership between Google, Facebook, and other companies.
Google said the cable would be 12,800 km long (8,000 miles) and would be the "highest-capacity trans-Pacific route".
[...] The project would also have portions connecting the US with Taiwan and the Philippines.
The cable has been laid, reportedly at a cost of "many millions of dollars", but needs approval to operate.
[...] The committee has recommended approval for the Taiwan and Philippines sections.
But on Wednesday, it recommended the US to Hong Kong section was denied "on national security grounds".
Do we need to boost capacity for Google and Facebook?
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday June 20 2020, @01:05PM
Why should the federal government either? The rejection is mostly on spurious grounds anyway. While glancing through the rejection letter from "Team Telecom", I see that they had another complaint, namely, that it was running through Hong Kong and thus, allowed China to control and monitor regional internet in addition to their internal internet traffic.
As to the FANGs building their own private internet? Go for it. Every bit of the internet belongs to someone. The more that is out there, the more reliable it becomes.